Wyclef Jean Prepays It Forward

MARCH 12--Though Wyclef Jean's charitable foundation has operated at a deficit and experienced cash flow problems, the group actually prepaid 25 months of office rent to a New York firm jointly owned by the musician and a relative.

While TSG has previously reported that the Wyclef Jean Foundation has been paying $3200 monthly to a Manhattan recording studio owned by the musician and his cousin Jerry Duplessis, accounting statements show that, in 2006, the not-for-profit group paid $65,000 upfront for that space. According to two sources, the Jean foundation's 'office' was actually a cafe table in the West 46th Street studio's kitchen.

Excerpts from the accounting statements, filed three months ago with the New York State Attorney General, can be found here and here. The documents do not explain the foundation's bizarre decision to prepay Platinum Sound Recording Studios rent covering all of 2006 and 2007, as well as January 2008. That hefty lump sum payout to the Jean/Duplessis firm, of course, came during a year in which the foundation paid an additional $350,000 to for-profit firms co-owned by Jean.

Now that he has unburdened himself of the probe of Governor David Paterson, perhaps Andrew Cuomo can find some time to examine the questionable financial practices of Jean's organization, which is now flush with cash donated in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. (3 pages)